Chap. 30 



ARTHROPODS INSECTS, SPIDERS, AND ALLIES 



621 



ROUND DANCE 

 Food near hive 



WAGGING DANCE 

 Food distant from hive 



Fig. 30.28. Honeybees broadcast the news of food by dancing on the comb 

 after they return to the hive with nectar. Left, the round dance performed when 

 the feeding place is near the hive (c. 10 meters). The bee turns around, once to 

 right and once to the left, repeating the circles for about half a minute in one 

 place. Right, the tail-wagging dance, performed when the feeding place is far from 

 the hive. The bee runs a short distance in a straight line wagging the abdomen, 

 then makes a complete 360-degree turn to the left, runs ahead once more and 

 turns to the right, and repeats this over and over. (Courtesy, von Frisch: Bees. 

 Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell University Press, 1950.) 



again, turn a circle to the right, retrace the line and wag. In the wagging dance 

 the number of turns in a given time indicates the distance more exactly, e.g., 

 for 100 meters, nine or 10 complete circles. When sugar water was set out in 

 nearby and in distant food stations at the same time .the bees returning from 

 them performed the appropriate dance for the station visited. If the farther 

 food station was moved closer to the hive, the same bees which had been wag- 

 ging, changed to the round dance. 



The Diversity of Insects 



Except in the Arctic and Antarctic, insects have occupied all lands. Their 

 numbers have so intensified their struggle for existence that no place or way 

 of living has been untried. Grasshoppers and honeybees meet their surround- 

 ings with complex and successful structures and activities that have been 

 merely suggested in the brief descriptions in this chapter. Thus, insects have 

 become of great importance to plants, to one another, to other animals and 

 humanity. Observation and experiments upon them have brought great con- 

 tributions to zoology and through it to agriculture, medicine, and sociology. 

 In this book it is only possible to introduce these through the books in the 

 Suggested Readings. Such subjects as insects and agriculture and forestry, 

 insects and their food, insects and disease, and social insects are included there. 

 Happily many of such books are readable and witty as well as informing. 



